Ready When It Matters Most
In Rosebery and at the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, residents and local government are helping prepare communities for whatever comes next.
When itcomes to emergency preparedness, communities benefit from collaboration. In places like Rosebery, neighbours look out for one another to protect a beautiful place anyone would be lucky to call home. And for communities in the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, new tools are strengthening disaster response, such as a mapping project designed to improve decision-making during emergencies.
Rosebery Gets It Done
When Miles Maxinuk stepped out of his farmhouse in Rosebery one evening in 2024, he received an unexpected call from a neighbour: the hillside near his home was on fire. An ember had jumped Slocan Lake, igniting a massive blaze unlike anything seen in recent memory.
The experience was an eye-opener for the community. While Rosebery sits on a stunning lake, it’s surrounded by Crown land, with one highway in and one highway out—making wildfire management critical. The 2024 Wilson Creek fire demonstrated just how vulnerable the area could be.
“With a grant from Columbia Basin Trust, we were able to get a lot of wildfire fuel mitigation work done in different pockets of forest, reducing vegetation that can contribute to the spread and intensity of wildfires,” says Kay Schwitzer, Chairperson of the Rosebery Community Association (RCA). “We treated 10 hectares in 2025 and another 10 in 2026, including the Galena Trail.”
The work, supported through the Columbia Basin Wildfire Resiliency Initiative, a partnership between the Trust and the Province of British Columbia, Ministry of Forests and BC Wildfire Service, included clearing brush and debris, helping improve access for fire crews.
“That’s a critical piece,” says Jeff Wilson, RCA member and project manager for the second phase. “The forests are quite dense here, so we need trails cleared enough that crews can get in and fight fires on the ground if needed.”
While many residents undertake FireSmart measures on their own properties, Schwitzer says landscape-level work makes a significant difference.
“To be able to get 20 hectares professionally treated to reduce wildfire risk is just amazing,” she adds. “I think we’ll see a big difference.”
RDKB at the Ready
In the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB), Manager of Emergency Programs Mark Stephens has been working on a mapping system to support emergency response during events like wildfires.
“We’ll be able to show responders where water sources are, hiking and quad trails, and any gates that may block access,” says Stephens. “We’re also integrating evacuation data so we know how many people are in an area. It really speeds up how quickly information moves from the site to the emergency operations centre.”
The system, developed with support from the Trust, will help ensure accurate information is shared quickly, whether the aim is to identify evacuation zones or track fire locations. Faster access to reliable data helps get critical support to affected communities when they need it most.
Stephens notes the RDKB is also partnering with the regional districts of East Kootenay and Central Kootenay to share resources, expertise and best practices—strengthening emergency preparedness across the Columbia Basin.
